The Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Co. (Orpic) has selected LyondellBasell's Spheripol polypropylene process technology for a new 300,000 tpy polypropylene (PP) plant to be built in Sohar, Sultanate of Oman.

Start-up of the Liwa plastics project is planned for 2018.

"We selected the LyondellBasell Spheripol process for its ability to cost-effectively produce a wide range of high-quality products that are demanded by our customers throughout the Middle East and South East Asia," said Henk Pauw, Orpic's general manager for the Liwa plastics project.

LyondellBasell is a leading licensor of polypropylene and polyethylene technologies with more than 250 polyolefin process licenses. The Spheripol process is a leading polypropylene technology to produce high-quality homopolymer, random and heterophasic copolymers.

"Orpic's detailed bidding process and resulting selection of our Spheripol process technology has again demonstrated LyondellBasell's leading position in polypropylene," said Bob Patel, LyondellBasell's executive vice president of olefins and polyolefins in Europe and Asia.

"Based on this first license, we are looking forward to establishing a strong long term relationship with Orpic," he added.